Beef and cattle

Today Amalia and I were at my godfather's ranch for a cattle slaughter. I am a firm believer that one should know the source of one's food. If one cannot bear to see cattle being slaughtered and butchered, one should ask why (likewise, if anyone thinks that bullfighting is particularly cruel, then one should probably question their commitment to eating meat of any form).

There is a great side benefit to participating in your food from pasture to the table in that you understand the complex flavors of the food much better. Beef is a very complex flavor. When you can trace certain notes from the grass to the smell of the freshly butchered animal to the cooking to the final dish your understanding of beef cookery deepens.

Certain smells are almost overpowering when encountered in the natural state. I will not gross you out with details, but first there is a wave of unpleasantness. Then recognition hits: "ah hah! I know that smell, as it is one of the components to the beef flavor." Suddenly that smell falls completely into place and ceases to be all that unpleasant.

Part of the deal of this trip was that I got to take home all the variety meats (although the Mexican ranch hands had dibs on the heads, so no beef cheeks, and I was only able to come away with one tongue). I have to admit that I was a little disappointed to find that one of the bulls was not intact. My platter of criadillas will have to be a little smaller, but I can hardly complain, since even the Oakland Housewives Marketplace doesn't stock these. I ended up passing on the tripe, because the ranch does not have running water, and I was not about to transport tripe that hadn't had a blast from a high pressure hose first. Also tripe preparation is lengthy and difficult, so the 69 cents a pound that I can buy pre-washed tripe suddenly looked pretty good (commercially they wash tripe in machines that look like cement mixers, so they can do massive amounts cheaply).

When I got home I had the taks of trimming and packing all of this exciting stuff, which is a further chance to explore the smells of what eventually ends up on the table.

On a parenting level, I have to admit that I really had to think about whether to take Amalia to the actual slaughter. In the end I decided that it was a great learning experience, and I am glad that she saw the whole thing. She asked a million questions and only seemed bothered by the sound of the gun. She also was fascinated by the cleaning and trimming at home. She is very much looking forward to "eating the bull."

Last night at my godfather's house we were looking at his bovine library. He had a book on bulls that had some good bullfighting pictures. Amalia is keen on going back to the bullfights now. I was proud of her when she would not let me go on to the section on breeding, because she wanted to look at the bullfight pictures some more (she was especially smitten with one of El Cordobes on one knee, passing the bull with the muleta).

Anyway, I now have more beef liver (not calves' liver, but the full-flavored thing from three year olds) than I possibly know what to do with, so expect some beef liver experimentation reports. I will also be making a big batch of Oxtail soup, so you can demand a recipe for that as well (I make mine in a modified Alpine/Hungarian style with paprika, tomatoes and red wine, finished with dry sherry). Also, expect some reports on beef heart experiments.